Escaping: The Experiment

Chapter 4

The first year was rough. I stayed off of the radar, only using my powers to get money, food, and clothing. Nothing too big. I stayed on the outskirts of the city I saw when I got out and had been living in the crawlspace of a semi-abandoned crackhouse. By that I mean, police searched the place every few weeks for druggies or common, everyday thieves. There were a few security cameras that were in the main house, so I stayed in the walls and the locked up basement. The best part was that I could never get caught by the squad. The squad is a group of the most trained people in the country, sent to find me. Since the house is monitored and there is no knowledge of the basement, they have no reason to think I'm here. It was as perfect as it could be for a thirteen year old, runaway, government experiment. I used my powers to hack ATMs to get money and occasionally to "persuade" a cashier to give me some food or clothes. I kept a month's worth of canned foods in the basement and enough clothes to last me a week before hitting the laundromat. I also always carried a decently sized backpack on me that carried two outfit changes and a few days worth of water and non perishables and around $200 in case I needed to get away within a moments notice. For almost seven months, I went about life like this. My first quick move to another place is always my most memorable one.

Before I go in for a supply run, I always find a way to loop the footage so that there's no evidence of my visit, but I didn't count on stock counting to be my downfall. Apparently, there was a single cashier at a convenience store nearby who would report not having everything they did at the beginning of the day, but have no record of selling them. The squad caught onto my drift, but I pulled it from there grasp. When I entered the store after looping the footage from the camera's control panel from behind the building, I knew everything was wrong. I heard the camera reboot and turn to face me. I pretended to ignore it and get a sports drink from the drink isle. They forgot that even without training, my senses and powers would get stronger. When I left, I could barely hear the tick of a clock from two rooms away, and that was considerably weak. I've had to concentrate on my senses more to make sure I don't get caught in my "home". I took the drink to the counter and could see the ear piece on the cashier.

"Could you check this out for me, I need the get one more thing." He didn't reply, so I just walked away. I walked down the little isle in front of him and turned so that I was out of his sight. I went to the restroom and looked for cameras, just in case, but luckily even government agents have some decency. There weren't any windows in the small restroom, and breaking the wall would be too noticeable so the only choice was the drainage pipe. It was as big as the sewer grates you would see in the street or in a parking and I was a very thin build. After taking off my shoes and putting them in my backpack,I lifted the grate and hung at the edge to pull the grate back into place. I dropped and landed feet first into sewer water. It was my only option of escape. The smell was horrible, like a fridge full of rotting food, but it was only prompting me to escape even more. I remembered the entire layout of the city, and estimated where I was going. I knew which way would take me to the house, but I knew that it's safety had been compromised since they found me. I headed to the opposite side of the city.

It took about 45 minutes, and I was drenched in sewer water. Despite my high intelligence, I don't have as much common sense as I should have. I tried to use my speed to get out quicker, but instead I slipped in sewer mud (I hope) and decided to walk from there. I reached a dead end in the sewer and saw a ladder leading up to a man hole. I climbed out and saw that I was exactly where I thought I was. The land fill. I had made an escape route through here in case of emergencies, now I had to use it. There was some more canned food and a sleeping bag. I grabbed it without a second thought and ran. I ran through large fields that passed empty ranches and small forests, until I came to the edge of another random forest. Can you guess what I did? I ran.